Looking at a range of earlier shifts in the development of arts education, these texts provoke an ever-present history, an archive of pedagogical thinking that continues to inform the forward movement of contemporary educational institutions.

The unifying pedagogy of the Bauhaus posits the artist-teacher as one who uses his or her artistic discipline to inform educational issues. As architect it is clear his education and practice were a lens for his views on education, the organization of the school, and the hiring of teachers. This article looks at the great experiment in art education that was the Bauhaus, and the ethos of its key founder, Gropius. (abridged abstract)

This book presents a thorough and personal engagement with the history of the influential arts school, Black Mountain College. Duberman’s interviews and forays into the archives of BMC reflect the contested leadership of the school, its struggle for academic “freedom” and “community” and present a complex portrait of the schools many notable personalities.

This text, being over a decade old, seems historical already in conversations around digital and web-based education but, nevertheless, presents inquiries of continuing importance around the artist’s role as a “media philosopher.”

A comprehensive gathering of ideas that proposes alternative models to the last century’s traditional art school. With historical models such as the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College and the École des Beaux-Arts, these texts prompt the contemplation of the exhibition as school, the academy and it’s ties to the art market, the potential of class diversification in America’s private art school system and the relationship of design and pedagogy as manifested through various architectures.

Rancière’s text uses the story of Joseph Jacotot (19th century French educator and pioneer of “intellectual emancipation”) to posit an egalitarian methodology of education in which all educators and students have equal capacity to learn and to teach.